Two long barns 300 feet long, 40 feet wide stood side by side on Parkplace farm. The two brothers & two sisters spent many hours in these barns helping to care for resident turkeys, cows & chickens. Although too young for turkey care, they pet the cows, walked through the chickens & and hand collected thousands of free range fertilized eggs.
For the boys, the most exciting culmination of this husbandry was cleanup. Cleanup carried a mixed workload of dismantling, manure removal & cleaning from each family member. The complex workload of this cleanup – managed by their farmer father, created a hierarchy in their minds, from physical animal transfer, to nest dismantle, slat tranfer & cleaning … all the way up to operating the tractor laying down fresh straw for new resident to come.
After the flock retired – with no time to waste, the huge doors on either end of the barn were opened and – as the farmer began electronic, feeding system and water disconnection, Kenny & Stevie each took a side of the barn to dismantle hundreds of tin nests, sharp piece by piece with the added bonus of ‘poop scraping’.
Gloved up, they flipped over the nest houses, carefully pulling out ‘astro turf’ square, and punching out the square tin bottoms. Then they tossed the nest bottoms onto the wagon.
At noon their mother arrived to the barn with sandwiches, peanut butter, apple slices, and a coke. Knowing they needed clean hands, the boys would rigorously wipe any ‘dirt’ off their hands before devouring their victual reward, and a break with their mom.
A hour or so later they felt overwhelmed with all their lack of progress and the remaining labour required, their pace slowed, distractions set in, and their hope turned to finding rotten eggs to throw at each other.
As they grew tired of the monotony, they heard the farm truck and quickly snapped into the pace of work their father desired. As their Dad arrived at the far end of the barn, Stevie made an evocative comment to Kenny.
Kenny, tin 10 x 10 inch nest bottom in hand, tossed it towards the wagon with a unexpected force and unexpected aim…. his brother.
The tin bottom sailed through the air – chicken dirt flying off, towards Stevie who ‘caught it’, with his forehead, before it sliced his head, and fell on the ground. Pulling off his glove he grabbed his wound, and looking towards his approaching Father, he pulled his bangs over the cut, then said to Kenny “Is it noticeable?” In other words: “Are we going to get in trouble because you tried to take my head off?”
Kenny, in shock and giddy foolishness, saw the blood seeping down Stevie’s left cheek through his fingers and responded ’Yeah, you could say its noticeable!”
Their Father approached, his mood undetectable by the boys.
Seeing Steve’s posture he firmly and quietly said “Let’s go! You need some stiches”
Kenny felt bad … especially because he remained – now solo, on the job of dismantling dirty nests while his brother got a reprieve to go to the hospital, get stitched, and get ice cream.
In the Saturdays to follow the nests were cleaned, the barn sparkled and new chickens returned, producing thousand of eggs which would hatch into more chicks to lay thousand more eggs for food. Pain was caused, lessons were learned, and the farm created abundant, rich life.
The Point: Life can have sharp dirty edges; handle with care. Think twice before throwing a painful piece at another. You never know where it might strike.
Farming Faith 